Tipping Poll

[RJake1]

************

New topic started on old thread. Please see post #2.

 

[All Things Simba]

Hi there DCL cruisers!

Thought I'd ask a poll question:

Do you....A. tip THE suggested amounts, B. tip OVER the suggested amounts, C. tip UNDER the suggested amounts, or... D. NOT tip at all (and skip the last dinner...we've seen lots of empty tables!).

Thanks! Just curious!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hi there DCL cruisers!

Thought I'd ask a poll question:

Do you....A. tip THE suggested amounts, B. tip OVER the suggested amounts, C. tip UNDER the suggested amounts, or... D. NOT tip at all (and skip the last dinner...we've seen lots of empty tables!).

Thanks! Just curious!

Nearly all the time, I tip the suggested amount by room charge then add $ cash to it so overall above the recommended tip,

I only once reduced a tip, it was for a head server I never saw, until tip night, and he put his hand out and I shook it, and I gave his tip tip my servers as an extra. -its the only time I had a bad head server.

PS To answer the OP, the Assistant server gets a lower recommended tip ( than main server) that takes into account potential drink orders and tips.

 

[disneynewbee]

I would assume the automatic tip would go to the bartender and not the server, the server would get his end of the wk tip. If not where would the bartender get tipped from. Like if I go up to the bar I'm going to tip even if I went up and got it myself so the bartender should still get tipped even if someone else is serving it. I don't know if that's how they do it but that is what I would think.

 

[vellamint]

I have no problem tipping what is expected and have (all of two cruises lol) given extra to the waiter and the room attendant. What I dont like feeling though is their expectation of receiving more and the guilty feeling I have if I dont give them more even when I dont feel they deserve more. But that is my problem.

I also wonder if they think I am stiffing them when I prepay my gratuities....after all, everyone around you is handing out envelopes.

On a RCCL the room attendant actually came to us the last morning and started telling us about how he hoped we would fill out the questionnaire and basically guilted us into giving him more of a tip. I won't let that happen to me again.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I would assume the automatic tip would go to the bartender and not the server, the server would get his end of the wk tip. If not where would the bartender get tipped from. Like if I go up to the bar I'm going to tip even if I went up and got it myself so the bartender should still get tipped even if someone else is serving it. I don't know if that's how they do it but that is what I would think.

In Bars on ship thats true but in the restaurants it goes to the Asst Server,

 

[cdndizzylizzy]

Last year on DCL, our assistant server made a special trip each night to Diversions to get me a Yingling draft beer, because it was not available in the restaurants. That kind of service warrants a tip above the 15%, or more at the end of the week. Twice now I have raised the assistant server tip amounts to be on par with the main server, as I have found the assistant server to have contributed equally to the quality and enjoyment of our family dinners.

 

[kcashner]

We had one favorite server who explained to us that he could make approximately 10 times as much on the cruise as he could earn at home IF everyone tipped the suggested amount. This man was a Ph.D. who was on the ship because he had a wife and two kids--he felt that by being away, he was able to give them the lifestyle he wanted for them. He worked hard, but in his country, one purchased an apartment and could not move in until it was fully paid for--so his goal was to stay on the ship until they owned their own housing. He did stay approximately a year beyond that, visibly happy that "now I am working for myself!" DCL had also allowed him to negotiate a contract of 4 months on, 2 off rather than the usual 6 months on, 2 off.

Of course, not everyone tips the recommended....and this is a free choice...and we saw him after a table of 16 (a college crowd from what he said) stiffed him AND wrote terrible comments.

The comment cards are taken very seriously. THey determine schedules, promotions, etc. Enough negative comments might result in a contract not being renewed!

This same server alerted me to the fact that the head server does a lot "behind the scenes." I commented that our head server appeared to be a dud--the server corrected me and said that his head server was "his best friend" and allowed him to do his job well, made things flow much better for him, etc. It made me aware that what I saw wasn't all there was.

I also usually charge the recommended amount and add to it with cash.

 

[brucechase]

Also - the people that wear Mickey's costume at the theme park make minimum wage or just slightly higher. Probably not fair compensation either for the person that can make a kid's trip truly magical...

I'm not sure where you got that from or what the pay rates are now. But when I was working for the mouse in the 80's (I was still in HS and college), my pay was way above the minimum wage. And the zoo crew got more and that was working 15 minutes of every hour.

My apologies if Disney is no longer paying at those levels. It would definately shock me if Disney is now paying minimum wages.



OK, I am responding to a comment made over 3 years ago. Sorry about that, but I thought this was a recent thread.

 

[Evil Queen 2]

We always give the recommended tip (or slightly rounded up) and have it charged to our room account so we get the "pay stubs" to hand out to the servers. Then, according to the good, better, great, or outstanding service we add cash to the different envelopes. I like to think of the tip amounts that are charged to my room as what is or could be reported as taxable income. Then the "extra" we give in cash doesn't have to be reported.

On one of our cruises we did not give the stateroom hostess anything extra because her service was very poor and her attitude even more so. While we did give her the recommended because we understand it is a good portion of her "wages", we made sure to fill out a comment card so Disney knew what problems there were. And early in the cruise we did bring up, in a nice manner, some points to her to give her a chance to improve. She didn't and her attitude seem to get worse. Toward the end of the cruise we were talking with some folks in a cabin in the same area that were having problems with her also so we knew it wasn't just us. And by filling out the comment card made supervisors aware of the problems.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We had one favorite server who explained to us that he could make approximately 10 times as much on the cruise as he could earn at home IF everyone tipped the suggested amount. This man was a Ph.D. who was on the ship because he had a wife and two kids--he felt that by being away, he was able to give them the lifestyle he wanted for them. He worked hard, but in his country, one purchased an apartment and could not move in until it was fully paid for--so his goal was to stay on the ship until they owned their own housing. He did stay approximately a year beyond that, visibly happy that "now I am working for myself!" DCL had also allowed him to negotiate a contract of 4 months on, 2 off rather than the usual 6 months on, 2 off.

Of course, not everyone tips the recommended....and this is a free choice...and we saw him after a table of 16 (a college crowd from what he said) stiffed him AND wrote terrible comments.

The comment cards are taken very seriously. THey determine schedules, promotions, etc. Enough negative comments might result in a contract not being renewed!

That is so terrible, DCL advertises the tips 'everywhere' and so its well know in advance and on ship, and everyone has a considerable amount of opportunity to complain if the service is under par, so there is no excuse really.

There is also another side to bad comments, this is often not talked about but, the servers with the best comments go up the Cat levels in the main restaurants, the ones with no so good comments go down the Cat levels.

(Source- CM's themselves)

The reason is that people in higher Cats 'tend' to tip more, so servers aspire to getting those cruisers, and also DCL try's to get better locations for Cat 1/2/3 cruisers and the servers like these locations.

It isn't guaranteed this will happen but it is the policy.

 

[kcashner]

servers with the best comments go up the Cat levels in the main restaurants, the ones with no so good comments go down the Cat levels.

(Source- CM's themselves)

The reason is that people in higher Cats 'tend' to tip more, so servers aspire to getting those cruisers, and also DCL try's to get better locations for Cat 1/2/3 cruisers and the servers like these locations.

It isn't guaranteed this will happen but it is the policy.

Yup...agrees with what we've heard.

 

[webray]

I noticed that the bar tab at dinner always included an "automatic gratuity". These were always served by our Assistant Server. Now, here's my issue: Since the Asst Server receives a weekly tip at the end of the cruise (and a handsome on at that) why are they being tipped on each drink order as well?

Phrased another way, why am I being forced to doubletip?

I am not cheap. I tip handsomely at week's end.

LOL, you are not double tipping. The asst server does not make the drinks, he only serves them. There is a bar behind the door in the kitchens staffed by a bartender. He is getting the tip added on your drink bill.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Wow - this is an old thread that is on it's third iteration

One thing that I didn't see mentioned is that the assistant server is not just the drinks server but is also the bread server, the plate clearer, the crumb remover, the silverware replacer...

It's nice when you get a server team that works well together. We had a fabulous team in summer 2007 (Andrew and Vivian!) and our team last month (Fernando and Gary) also worked well together -- we could see them helping each other out at the other tables in their section to get the guests served quickly and efficiently. I always cringe when I see a difficult table in our section because I know that makes our server team a bit more on edge - we always make sure to let our head server know how much we appreciate our server team's performance.

I had heard that the more experience and positive comments a serving team gets, the closer they are moved toward the kitchen - which allows them to get the meals in and out quicker. I don't know if that is still the case or not, but I'd be curious to know.

 

[Presentation]

That is so terrible, DCL advertises the tips 'everywhere' and so its well know in advance and on ship, and everyone has a considerable amount of opportunity to complain if the service is under par, so there is no excuse really.

There is also another side to bad comments, this is often not talked about but, the servers with the best comments go up the Cat levels in the main restaurants, the ones with no so good comments go down the Cat levels.

(Source- CM's themselves)

The reason is that people in higher Cats 'tend' to tip more, so servers aspire to getting those cruisers, and also DCL try's to get better locations for Cat 1/2/3 cruisers and the servers like these locations.

It isn't guaranteed this will happen but it is the policy.

Yup...agrees with what we've heard.

We have been cat 4 for the last, well, 5 Disney cruises.

We are a family of 5 so we always get sat with a family of 3. This other family has come from a variety of categories.

 

[kcashner]

I have not heard the part about them being moved closer to the kitchen for positive comments....but have heard from servers that positive comments = higher category guests and positive comments = better schedules. I'm not sure what constitutes a good/bad schedule by their assessment, but it has to do with what activities they serve besides the dinner schedule.

And I know that being required to be in the water on Castaway day doing safety/lifeboat drills is not one that my favorite server liked doing.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have not heard the part about them being moved closer to the kitchen for positive comments....but have heard from servers that positive comments = higher category guests and positive comments = better schedules. I'm not sure what constitutes a good/bad schedule by their assessment, but it has to do with what activities they serve besides the dinner schedule.

And I know that being required to be in the water on Castaway day doing safety/lifeboat drills is not one that my favorite server liked doing.

I was told the general trend was for higher Cats to be in the middle of the restaurant easy access, and also good for any activity/ show characters etc.

Servers with good reviews each cruise go up the pecking order, Servers with poor ones go down, average stay put.

Severs have confided with me they have worked very hard to get to a certain level and didn't want to go back so if anything was wrong, please let them know.

On my last few cruises i have tended to be near the middle without request.

 

[cats mom]

We have been cat 4 for the last, well, 5 Disney cruises.

We are a family of 5 so we always get sat with a family of 3. This other family has come from a variety of categories.

I was curious about this one too. On a recent extended family cruise our dining party consisted of 2 cat 3 cabins, 1 cat 6 cabin, 1 cat 7 cabin, and 4 lowly cat 11 cabins... must have been a tough call for whoever made out the dining schedule that week.
I wonder what level servers we were assigned?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I was curious about this one too. On a recent extended family cruise our dining party consisted of 2 cat 3 cabins, 1 cat 6 cabin, 1 cat 7 cabin, and 4 lowly cat 11 cabins... must have been a tough call for whoever made out the dining schedule that week.
I wonder what level servers we were assigned?

There are so many different factors, its like a big jigsaw and all of the items do not all fit together, so thats why I post they 'tend' to do things as its not always possible.

Each cruise and each dinner rotation is different every week.

 

[disneynewbee]

LOL, you are not double tipping. The asst server does not make the drinks, he only serves them. There is a bar behind the door in the kitchens staffed by a bartender. He is getting the tip added on your drink bill.

That's what I thought too but everyone else is saying no.